I agree that there is a definite need for people to get off the internet and try to live more in the analogue world and form meaningful groups. The church used to fulfil this function for people, as a place to meet in the community every Sunday, but in order to build a society in which duties and obligations to others were abolished in favour of individualism, the church needed to be abolished.
I also agree that people need to speak better to others and try to communicate properly to find the truth rather than just bitterly arguing. It is too easy to do this on the internet. I don't consider myself left-wing but it is interesting to see the overlap in that we both agree community is necessary from different angles. Building a community is difficult in itself though, as there needs to be some sort of binding thing that you all agree on in order for the community to have a focal point and to avoid big divisions.
Anyway, I would put forward a point to think about, that the increasing prominence of politics as taking over every facet of life, is a response to the individualistic and socially atomised society we have built. We live in societies in which most of us have absolutely no political power and aren't valued beyond being economic actors. People turn to politics and get really political in order to find a sense of meaning and of mattering in a brutal world in which society does not value them beyond expediency. But, none of us have any real political clout and so it only ends up irritating us all and leading to unhappiness, because we open our minds up to receive a constant feed of negative stories and political drama etc.
Perhaps you will disagree, but I enjoyed the article and I look forward to reading more.
If anybody in the Boston area would like to meet, metaphysiocrat at pm dot me
If anybody in the San Francisco Bay Area wants to meet up, let me know either here or via email: philipkd AT-SYMBOL gmail
I agree that there is a definite need for people to get off the internet and try to live more in the analogue world and form meaningful groups. The church used to fulfil this function for people, as a place to meet in the community every Sunday, but in order to build a society in which duties and obligations to others were abolished in favour of individualism, the church needed to be abolished.
I also agree that people need to speak better to others and try to communicate properly to find the truth rather than just bitterly arguing. It is too easy to do this on the internet. I don't consider myself left-wing but it is interesting to see the overlap in that we both agree community is necessary from different angles. Building a community is difficult in itself though, as there needs to be some sort of binding thing that you all agree on in order for the community to have a focal point and to avoid big divisions.
Anyway, I would put forward a point to think about, that the increasing prominence of politics as taking over every facet of life, is a response to the individualistic and socially atomised society we have built. We live in societies in which most of us have absolutely no political power and aren't valued beyond being economic actors. People turn to politics and get really political in order to find a sense of meaning and of mattering in a brutal world in which society does not value them beyond expediency. But, none of us have any real political clout and so it only ends up irritating us all and leading to unhappiness, because we open our minds up to receive a constant feed of negative stories and political drama etc.
Perhaps you will disagree, but I enjoyed the article and I look forward to reading more.